Managing linguistic diversity in a South African HIV/AIDS day clinic
-
Christine Anthonissen
Abstract
This article addresses aspects of multilingual communication in a number of state-run HIV-clinics in the Western Cape. It describes linguistic diversity in South Africa and shows how the national constitution has planned for such diversity. Practical challenges to the ideals of the constitution that arise when speakers of the various languages come into contact in public workspaces such as medical care facilities, are highlighted. The hazardous terrain encountered by service providers as well as those requiring the services, at multilingual, multicultural meeting points is illustrated. Specifically, attention is given to how linguistic resources of multilingual participants are applied, how language choice is exercised, and how communicative functions are performed in encounters where doctors and patients meet in consultation in an HIV-clinic. On the one hand the chapter is interested in the match or mismatch between language policy and language practice in public health provision. On the other hand it is interested in how people with very different linguistic resources manage communicative events in a context where successful communication is quite a critical part of a treatment plan that obviously involves more than communicative action only.
Abstract
This article addresses aspects of multilingual communication in a number of state-run HIV-clinics in the Western Cape. It describes linguistic diversity in South Africa and shows how the national constitution has planned for such diversity. Practical challenges to the ideals of the constitution that arise when speakers of the various languages come into contact in public workspaces such as medical care facilities, are highlighted. The hazardous terrain encountered by service providers as well as those requiring the services, at multilingual, multicultural meeting points is illustrated. Specifically, attention is given to how linguistic resources of multilingual participants are applied, how language choice is exercised, and how communicative functions are performed in encounters where doctors and patients meet in consultation in an HIV-clinic. On the one hand the chapter is interested in the match or mismatch between language policy and language practice in public health provision. On the other hand it is interested in how people with very different linguistic resources manage communicative events in a context where successful communication is quite a critical part of a treatment plan that obviously involves more than communicative action only.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Multilingualism at work 1
-
Public sector
- Linguistic competence and professional identity in English medium instruction 13
- The multilingual organization of remembrance in Nazi camp memorials 47
- Achieving bilingualism in the Canadian federal public workplace 81
-
Medical sector
- Managing linguistic diversity in a South African HIV/AIDS day clinic 107
- Interpreter-mediated interaction as a way to promote multilingualism 141
- Nurses as interpreters? 163
-
Business sector
- Conflicting discourses of rapport and co-membership 187
- Plurilingual practices at multilingual workplaces 211
- Do other languages than English matter? 235
- Multilingual business writing 253
- Index 273
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- Multilingualism at work 1
-
Public sector
- Linguistic competence and professional identity in English medium instruction 13
- The multilingual organization of remembrance in Nazi camp memorials 47
- Achieving bilingualism in the Canadian federal public workplace 81
-
Medical sector
- Managing linguistic diversity in a South African HIV/AIDS day clinic 107
- Interpreter-mediated interaction as a way to promote multilingualism 141
- Nurses as interpreters? 163
-
Business sector
- Conflicting discourses of rapport and co-membership 187
- Plurilingual practices at multilingual workplaces 211
- Do other languages than English matter? 235
- Multilingual business writing 253
- Index 273
